Club Life of London, Vol. 1 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th CenturiesTimbs, John
History
Club Life of London, Vol. 1 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
Timbs, John
Clubs -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
In the same year Swift framed the rules of the Brothers Club, which
met every Thursday. "The end of our Club," he says, "is to advance
conversation and friendship, and to reward learning without interest
or recommendation. We take in none but men of wit, or men of interest;
and if we go on as we began, no other Club in this town will be worth
talking of."
The Journal about this time is very full of _Brothers_ Arran and
Dupplin, Masham and Ormond, Bathurst and Harcourt, Orrery and Jack
Hill, and other Tory magnates of the Club, or Society as Swift
preferred to call it. We find him entertaining his "Brothers" at the
Thatched House Tavern, in St. James's Street, at the cost of seven
good guineas. He must have been an influential member; he writes: "We
are now, in all, nine lords and ten commoners. The Duke of Beaufort
had the confidence to propose his brother-in-law, the Earl of Danby,
to be a member; but I opposed it so warmly, that it was waived. Danby
is not above twenty, and we will have no more boys; and we want but
two to make up our number. I staid till eight, and then we all went
away soberly. The Duke of Ormond's treat last week cost £20, though it
was only four dishes and four without a dessert; and I bespoke it in
order to be cheap. Yet I could not prevail to change the house. Lord
Treasurer is in a rage with us for being so extravagant; and the wine
was not reckoned neither, for that is always brought in by him that is
president."
Not long after this, Swift writes: "Our Society does not meet now as
usual; for which I am blamed; but till Treasurer will agree to give us
money and employments to bestow, I am averse to it, and he gives us
nothing but promises. We now resolve to meet but once a fortnight, and
have a committee every other week of six or seven, to consult about
doing _some good_. I proposed another message to Lord Treasurer by
three principal members, to give a hundred guineas to a certain
person, and they are to urge it as well as they can."
One day, President Arbuthnot gives the Society a dinner, dressed in
the Queen's kitchen: "we eat it in Ozinda's Coffee-house just by St.
James's. We were never merrier or better company, and did not part
till after eleven." In May, we hear how "fifteen of our Society dined
together under a canopy in an arbour at Parson's Green last Thursday.
I never saw anything so fine and romantic."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account